Two in Every Three Juvenile Offenders in São Paulo Have No Father Figure at Home

06/27/2016 - 12h41

Tired of seeing his mother brutally beaten by his stepfather, student Filiphe Gomes, decided to confront the violent adult at the age of 12. He pulled out a knife and said he would not tolerate the situation any more.

Filiphe Gomes's tragedy was seeing his mother take her husband's side. That was the trigger to make him leave home for the streets, living under the Chá viaduct, in the city center of São Paulo.

It was not long before he began to hang out with a bad crowd and, shortly after, move to a new home after he was arrested for armed robbery: penal institution Fundação Casa.

A child brought up in a dysfunctional family, with low income and little schooling, Filiphe, who became a rapper and is known as MC Cafuzo, is a living example of the numbers shown in new survey by the District Attorney Office of São Paulo.

The survey shows that two in every three juvenile offenders come from families that did not have a father figure at home.

The study was done with some 1,500 teenagers between ages 12 and 18 who committed crimes in the city of São Paulo between 2014 and 2015. Among these teenagers, 42% had no contact with their fathers.

The data in the study also show that 37% of the teenagers interviewed have parents who also have a criminal record, which could indicate a negative influence inside their own homes.

"Experience shows it is possible to affirm that a functional and present family, whatever configuration it may have, is the first braking system that a young person will have to his behavior," says District Attorney officer Eduardo Del-Campo, who catalogued the cases of juvenile offender for one year.

ABSENCE

"I have seen my father twice in my life. And it is very clear how important his absence was to me in psychological terms," says MC Cafuzo, who is now 24 years old and has a two-year-old daughter.

Since the age of six, he and his two older siblings took care of the home, as their mother, who was a nursing assistant, had a double shift – she was working and studying to become a nurse.

"She used to leave home at 6:00 in the morning and come back at 11:00 p.m. I used to go to school in the morning and come back home to do house chores. In the meantime, we used to hang out in the streets," says MC Cafuzo.

It was in the streets that he had his first contact with crime. He began to pickpocket and soon was involved with drug trafficking.

EDUCATION

The D.A. officer says that, in addition to a functional family, another factor that prevents children from becoming involved in crime is school, which suffers with dropouts and is not much attractive to them.

The survey also shows that only 57% of juvenile offenders attended school. "Even if they are going to school, it is necessary to understand how good the education they are given is," says the D.A. officer.

The lack of interest in school was cited by 38% of the children and teenagers who dropped out. The datum is confirmed by Cafuzo's experience.

"I dropped out of school in the 8th grade [currently considered 9th grade]. But I just went to school to eat in the cafeteria, play soccer, date girls and talk to friends. Classes always seemed very boring to me."

Del-Campo believes that it is necessary to carry out public policies to prevent children and teenagers from becoming criminals. "Education, sports, cultural classes, each of these elements serves as a basis that makes young people understand how they should behave in society."

Cafuzo says that he only got his "code of conduct" when he discovered the meaning of rap music, while he was in inmate at Fundação Casa.

"Rap music saved me, it was my schoolbook. Rap taught me that crime was our reality, but we should not accept that as the only way," says Cafuzo.

LINKS

Specialists heard by Folha say that the collapse in the life of a teenager – the point that makes him become a criminal – begins when, as a child, he loses the positive links and starts to suffer of emotional deprivation.

The positive links do not have to be with his mother and father figures necessarily, but they are absolutely crucial in any instance.

"These links have to be there – whether they are made with their father, mother, a teacher or a friend. Either that or the links will be made with those connected to crime," says Professor Sérgio Kodato, the coordinator of the Observatory on Violence and Example Practices of USP Ribeirão Preto.

Kodato praises the existing programs in the U.S. which set a type of stepfather to follow the juvenile offenders. "These stepfathers are people who go home with the children, they establish a connection. They are going to find an activity or get a job, they follow the childrens' performance in school."

The professor of clinical criminology of the Law School of USP, Alvino Augusto de Sá, also believes that the way society – including the Judicial branch – treats its juvenile offenders is harmful. "Everybody sees them as an enemy, a criminal, and they end up seeing themselves as the enemy."

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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